A Christmas far from home : an epic tale of courage and survival during the Korean War

Author

Stanley Weintraub

Call Number

• 951.9042 W4249 (CEN)

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Publication Information

Boston, MA : Da Capo Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group Press, [2014]

Physical Description

xvi, 286 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Summary

"Just before Thanksgiving in 1950, five months into the Korean War, General MacArthur flew to American positions in the north and grandly announced an 'end-the-war-by-Christmas' offensive despite recent intervention by Mao's Chinese, who would soon trap tens of thousands of US troops poised toward the Yalu River border. Led by Marines, an overwhelmed X Corps evacuated the frigid, mountainous Chosin Reservoir fastness and fought a swarming enemy and treacherous snow and ice to reach the coast. Weather, terrain, Chinese firepower, and a 4,000-foot chasm made escape seem impossible in the face of a vanishing Christmas. But endurance and sacrifice prevailed, and the last troop ships weighed anchor on Christmas Eve"--

Contents

• A turkey for Thanksgiving
• Upbeat Thanksgiving
• The pincers parlay
• Mission impossible
• An entirely new war
• Beginning the breakout
• Hagaru to Koto-ri
• A bridge apart
• Downhill all the way
• Christmas Eve.